Birthday Week and Thanksgiving

I turned 29 on the 25th of November. I love birthdays and think it’s great if the celebrating stretches out over at least a couple of days. We started the weekend before my birthday, going to dinner in the city with our dear friends, Carrie and Steve.

Looking at these pictures brings instant tears to my eyes. They’re moving from Downers Grove, IL to Denver, Colorado tomorrow morning. OH there is a hole in my heart.

There is something about friends that you make in certain phases of your life – the Christensens were our closest friends that went through a very similar experience (our husbands getting PhDs in science at the same university – it was such a long haul). We can talk about anything with these guys and I especially have fun debating with Steve about politics and other national issues. I talk to Carrie almost every day and know we’ll still talk often after they move.

You may remember the going away party we threw for them in the summer – they moved to the western suburbs to be closer to the national lab where Steve was working. But when Steve got an offer at the national lab near Denver, they jumped at the opportunity to be close to Carrie’s family. At least I’ve had a little time adjusting to having them not live five minutes away anymore, , but a 16-hour drive is a big jump.

Oh Carrie. At least I get to hear your laugh on the phone, even if it’s more fun in person!

We ate at Rosebud, which is a very old-time Chicago kind of restaurant in Little Italy, where we ate heavy, but tasty Italian food. I swear I gained five pounds from one dinner there. We ate SO much.

We celebrated all kinds of things – Carrie’s birthday in October, my birthday in November, and Steve’s birthday in December. We gave them some fun travel/city guide books for their new city – my favorite being a new one called Eat. Shop Denver: The Indispensible Guide to Inspired, Locally Owned Eating and Shopping Establishments. (I liked it so much that I ordered the Eat. Shop Chicago guide, which should arrive soon) I really despise most chain restaurants!

Okay, on to a lighter tone – the day before my birthday, my mom came down to teach piano and my dad joined her, but hung out at my house while she was gone teaching. I had some projects I was scrambling to get done, so my dad helped entertain the boys, which was great. Here’s my dad and Eli playing a crazy game of Candyland :)

Eli loved his time with Bumpa! My mom was done teaching around 7:30 p.m., and then we ate pizza (mine was cheeseless of course) and watched So You Think You Can Dance together. I love that show.

On the morning of my birthday, the kids woke up at a decent hour – I think Charlie slept until 6:30 a.m., which I was very grateful for. Eli was up around 7 a.m. and was wearing my favorite jammes – the ones that say, I Love Mom.

Of course, my 29th birthday wouldn’t be complete without Eli yelling, “NO CHARLIE!”

He doesn’t like it when Charlie touches his crib.

But I reminded him that it was my birthday after all, so it would be great if he was nice to his brother. That worked for a few minutes.

It helps that Charlie almost always “moves on” pretty fast. I am constantly reminding Eli that Charlie will move on. But it’s funny how when Charlie does move to something else, Eli always exclaims with huge surprise, “Look! Charlie moved on!” like he didn’t believe it was really going to happen.

He even moves on quickly while chewing on books – first Thomas, then Go Dogs Go! Pretty tasty.

The penguin humidifier is a source of contention in Eli’s room as well. Charlie likes to take the top off, much to Eli’s horror. “NO CHARLIE!!!!!!”

Oh the tears that follow this simple action. Poor Eli. It’s hard having a little brother sometimes!

I was able to distract Eli pretty fast once I told him that another neighbor’s fish was downstairs, waiting to be fed for the morning. He was SO excited!! We were fish-sitting while a different set of neighbors went out of town this time. I love it – I can handle a pet in short amounts… especially one that you just have to feed twice a day. Eli had a lot of fun watching Gilligan the beta fish.

Of course there’s always a chance a little person might come spoil the fun for you (if you’re two). “NO CHARLIE!!!!!!”

Someday. Someday they will have a mutual relationship of love and friendship. (right??) It’s still very one-sided (Charlie adoring Eli).

After Charlie’s morning nap, we met my friend Khania and her kids for lunch. Amazingly, all of our kids behaved themselves and we had a great time. It was a really nice part of my birthday.

Afterward, Khania surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers from her and a few other friends. I LOVED them! I can count the number of times Ben has given me flowers on one hand. It’s just not his thing. I’ve accepted that fact after nearly nine years of marriage, but it makes me even more excited to get flowers from other people.

Hooray for beautiful, bright flowers on a gray Chicago day! (It was overcast on my birthday)

After lunch, we came back home and I put the boys down for the naps. I told Eli that it would be SUCH a wonderful birthday present to me if he actually slept/napped that day.

AND HE DID!! My non-napper TOOK A NAP! I was elated. And loved every minute of those two hours that I had the time to myself. What a gift! Thank you Eli.

Later in the day, Ben came home from work pretty early, which was a nice treat. I’ll take 4:15 p.m. over 6:15 p.m. any day! But it’s great for that to happen on my birthday (one of the few perks to having your birthday the day before a holiday). He and Eli fought traffic to go pick up my birthday ice cream turtle pie from Baskin Robbins (the closer Baskin Robbins don’t make the turtle pie anymore, so he had to go kind of far). It’s tradition though, and I love that he picks it up each year!

My other birthday present from Ben was a new Sonicare toothbrush, since my old one died last month. After a month of using the regular kind of toothbrush again, it was so heavenly to use the new Sonicare brush. It’s worth every penny.

Back to the turtle pie - in my family, we always put one extra candle as “one to grow on” – and Ben spaced them all the way around the pie, which made it hard to get them in one shot. It probably took me four tries to blow all of the candles out.

Finally! Now we can eat :) It was a wonderful birthday! Pretty low key, but so nice at the same time.

The next morning, my family drove down to get started on Thanksgiving preparations. Here’s Davey, my dad, and Eli working on the stuffing:

Gram reading a new book to Eli (Davey gave it to him – it’s very cute). She also sang lots of songs with him, which he loved.

Hours later, the turkey was done!

Gram and my mom getting things ready:

After dinner, it was time for birthday presents from my family -

Eli had fun helping me open them. My parents gave me a cute owl towel, along with the new Martha Stewart Dinner at Home cookbook and the Martha Stewart Cupcakes book – both are really wonderful. I’m excited to try some of the recipes! Davey gave me some nice soap (which was funny because he gave me soap last year too), and Gram gave me some Christmas placemats, a bracelet, a frog toy for the kids, and a gingerbread muffin pan. Ben's parents send a few pieces of the Willow Tree nativity set each year, so this year I got the angel and the angel stand, which are wonderful.

And since my pictures showed up in random order, here are the boys during dinner. Eli ate a roll and some turkey, along with some fruit. I don’t think he was too stuffed after dinner!

Charlie ate sweet potatoes, turkey, rolls, fruit, and broccoli. I hope his good eating is here to stay! Eli definitely used to eat more.

After after dinner, after presents, Charlie pulled himself up at the piano and serenaded us with some music :) He loves playing the piano and humming along.

Phew! My birthday marathon is over. If you made it to the end of this post, I’m impressed.

I’m not extremely excited that my twenty-ten birthday is just a year away (though I love that I’m turning twenty-ten in 2010), but I’m going to try to enjoy the last year in my 20s as much as possible!